Unfortunately, fate wasn’t on my side. The tent tumbled from my pack and slid into a ravine. I cursed when fate yanked my foot off the path, and I went in after my tent. There was a moment where I figured this would make retrieving my tent a lot quicker.
That thought quickly fell away as rocks and branches stabbed at my tender flesh. I crashed into my own tent pack and groaned when the stakes jabbed me in the ribs. Before I could bemoan my pain, death took ahold of me.
My arcana burst free of my body. I cried out, but the sound became a whimper of fear. The skeletal fingers of power spread out in search of a body to animate.
“No, no, no,” I whispered over and over.
Desperately, I yanked my power back, but it kept sliding out of my grasp. I couldn’t keep it contained. Rolling over, I pushed myself onto my hands and knees, but that brought me face to face with my worst fear.
She looked at me with cloudy eyes. Her lips were partly open in a soft, silent scream. Black hair tried to escape her messy bun. She…looked a lot like me.
I tensed, waiting for her spirit to find me and beg for vengeance.
But it never came.
Maddox
It was too damn earlyin the day to be out in the mountains. The air was crisp and delicate, not at all what I wanted. When mud squelched beneath my boot, I craved the stifling dead air of my office where stacks of yet unsolved murder cases still waited for me.
I didn’t want to be out here, picking up another one.
A woman sat on the ground, her head in her hands. Mud caked her athletic leggings and jacket. There were twigs still sticking out of her satiny black braid. She glared at the ravine with furious intent, yet there wasn’t a drop of blood to be found in her pale face.
The others had already cordoned off the scene for me, so I went over to the witness who found the body for us. She leapt to her feet and futilely brushed at the mud on her clothing as I approached. With a sigh, she gave up.
The air around her was colder than it was elsewhere. A shiver raced up my spine and set off several alarms in the back of my mind. The cold emptiness of her eyes unsettled me. I’d seen that same expression in killers. Not the ones who gave in to the throes of anger, but the ones who killed to feel alive.
“Mind sharing your name?” I asked as I plucked my notepad from my coat pocket.
She swallowed audibly, a gesture at odds with the emptiness of her eyes. I watched as her personality rushed back in. She nervously wrung her fingers as her brows pitched upwards.
I made a note of this ruse. The woman was clearly putting on a show to pretend at her innocence. I didn’t trust this for a minute.
“Adeline McCauley. I was camping about a mile east of here. I found the body when my tent fell off my pack and slid into the ravine.”
“I didn’t ask you how you found the body.” I looked her up and down before reaching to pluck a twig from her hair.
Fingers on the twig, I froze. Adeline did, too. Her pale eyes rolled up to where my hand hovered over her head. What possessed me to touch her? My breath caught in my throat. I had to finish this, but my body and mind were at war.
Adeline laughed nervously and ducked out from under my hand. She brushed away the twigs and leaves still clinging to her braid.
“I, uh, might have fallen in after my tent.” She winced and grabbed her side.
Concern hit me before I could think twice. “Do you need to see a paramedic?”
What the hell was wrong with me? She was a suspect. This odd woman wasn’t innocent here. I could tell from that look in her eyes, yet something about her begged me to look after her. I was caught between what I knew I needed to do and what my gut wanted.
I hated this.
I hadn’t felt so distraught over a woman since…
Shrugging that gloomy thought away, I turned my attention back to Adeline.
“I’m fine.” She inhaled and winced again. “I think. I’ve been in worse shape before. I’m out here a lot. I’ve learned to be careful the hard way.”
“Ma’am. It’s March. What are you doing camping in the mountains?” The air wasn’t as cold as it could be in the depths of a New York March, but this still wasn’t the time of year to be camping.
No one else was dumb enough to come out here just for fun. That was another mark against her. She’d come out to dump this body. I would have bet my entire career on it. This soft feminine act was a ploy at her disposal. It was so that we wouldn’t question her when she called in her own crime.